Mandukya Upanishad is the shortest of all the Upanishads, and is assigned to Atharvaveda. It is in prose, consisting of twelve terse verses, and is associated with a Rig Vedic school of scholars. It discusses the syllable OM, presents the theory of four states of consciousness, and asserts that OM is Brahman, which is the Whole, and that Brahman is this self (ātman). The Mandukya Upanishad is notable for having been recommended in the Muktikā Upanishad, through two central characters of the Ram